Netflix and game

“We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO.”

That’s a quote from Netflix’s 2019 earnings report and, in retrospect, feels like a mission statement for the company’s next big leap – gaming.

Since September 2021, Netflix has acquired four gaming studios and established two of its own. Last Wednesday, one of those studios, Night School, released its latest game, Oxenfree II, as a Netflix original.

Notably, the game isn’t just available on Netflix’s mobile app, but also on Playstation 4/5, PC, Mac, and Nintendo Switch.

• The first-person, narrative-driven game is one of about 70 games you can currently play on Netflix’s mobile app; another 85 or so are in development.
• There isn’t any way to play games through the TV app… yet. According to reports, you may soon be able to use your smartphone as a controller for non-mobile games.

Unlike most mobile games today, which are “free-to-play” and monetize through in-game purchases and ads, Netflix offers the opposite: up-front payment and no ads. And that’s got developers pretty excited.

🎮 Big picture: Netflix’s gaming division currently has 450 employees, making it a baby-sized David compared to Goliaths of the industry. Gaming giant Activision Blizzard, for example – which was recently cleared to sell to Microsoft for $69 billion after the FTC failed to stop the deal – boasts 17,000 employees.